Pile fabric with resilient lining



Dec. 30, 1958 R. c. GEBERT FILE FABRIC WITH RESILIENT LINING 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 20, 1956 mhLnobL/a Maid FIEL4.

PIE 5 Dec. 30, 1958 R. c. GEBERT PILE FABRIC WITH RESILIEINT mums 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 20, 1956 fuss 6% 6 2,866,206 1 FILE FABRIC WITH RESILIENT LINING Russell C. Gebert, Elkins Park, Pa., assignor to James lLees and Sons Company, Bridgeport, Pa., 2 corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 20, 1956, Serial No. 605,021 1 Claim. (Cl. 2-278) This invention relates to tufted textile floor coverings and more particularly to a tufted carpet in which a pad or underlay is formed integrally at the time of producing the fabric in the tufting machine.

The use of pads or underlays for floor coverings is in general well known. Ordinarily these are merely placed under the carpet. In other instances they may be secured to the carpet by means of an adhesive. In the tufting operation ditficulty has been experienced in providing an integral pad or underlay because the tufting needles tend to cut the underlay into strips so that without an adhesive, the backing tends to separate between the rows of tufts.

A primary object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a floor covering in which a resilient base or pad is utilized directly in the tufting machine so that no further steps are necessary.

A further object of the invention is to provide in a tufted carpet an integrally formed pad with suitable reinforcing means to prevent the pad from tearing.

Further objects will be apparent from the specification and drawings in which Fig. 1 is a perspective of a tufted carpet manufactured in accordance with the present invention,

Figs. 2-4 are warpwise sectional details of various embodiments of the invention,

- Fig. 5 is a sectional view as seen at 55 of 1,

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of a tufting machine capable of performing the present invention, and

Fig. 7 is a detail of the tufting operation.

The invention comprises essentially provision of a resilient pad material which is fed directly into the tufting machine in place of or in addition to a secondary fabric backing. In this way it is possible to tuft simultaneously a floor covering having a laminated base structure of both woven and non-woven material. The non-woven material may be felt padding, foam rubber, or any other suitable webbing which is of adequate resilience and capable of being fed into a carpet tufting machine. In a preferred embodiment the backing is utilized in conjunction with a fabric intended to materially strengthen the non-woven pad.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, a carpet constructed in accordance with the present invention comprises a backing or base 10 which in the form of Figs. 1 and 5 is desirably foam rubber. The tufts 11 are woven through the foam rubber 10 and in addition a woven fabric material 12 which forms an upper sheet or covering for the rubber base 10. Loops 11 extend through the woven and non-woven materials and have stitches 13, 13 on the bottom of the fabric. The combination of fabric 11 and the foam rubber pad 10 is important in providing adequate control of the highly elastomeric, deformable base 10. It has been found that the stretching of such a rubber base frequently causes or induces cutting of the tufts so that the stitches 13 would tend to cut right through the rubber base. Fig. 3 illustrates a fabric in which a resilient base 15 may be used without the fabric, but unless adequate precautions are taken, thiswill be a much slower and less satisfactory expedient for obtaining good results. v

A hair felt pad 16 is shown in Fig. 2 as tufted directly without the use of a supplementary woven or textile nited States atent 2,866,206 Patented Dec. 30, 1958 ice backing. Here again precautions are recommended to prevent the pile from cutting or pulling out of the base fabric along the warpwise rows of stitching. Factors which must be considered in this connection among others are the thickness and density of the pad material.

In the production of a fabric in accordance with the invention, I feed the resilient padding material, regardless of its nature, through a conventional tufting machine such as shown in Fig. 6. This machine comprises a needle motion 20 having a crank shaft 21 and a vertically reciprocable needle bar 22 to which there are attached a plurality of needles 23, 23 by means of set screws 24, 24. The fabric, which may be if desired, a conventional woven backing material, is supplied to the tufting machine from a source 24 over rollers 25 and 26. From thence it is carried under a guide roller 27, feed pin roll 28, over the bed plates 29 of the machine, over take-up guide rollers 30 and 31 which are positioned on opposite sides of pin take-up roll 32. From thence the completed fabric passes over guide rollers 33 and 34 and is wound up on roll 36. The conventional loopers 37 are mounted on a rock shaft 38 and operated in the standard manner. The face yarn 39 is fed from a creel, not shown, through feed rolls 40 and 41 and guides 42 and 43.

The resilient backing material, which may be any one of the constructions shown in Figs. 2-5, is supplied from a beam or roll 44 and from thence over guides 45 and 46 where it meets with the fabric 12 at guide 27. In this way the resilient material is superimposed over the woven material 12 as they pass together across the bed 29 of the tuftingmachine. In the preferred form the woven textile material is supplied to the tufting machine underneath the pad, both of which are in the form of continuous webs or pellicles. One purpose in superimposing the resilient pad over the textile web is to provide the ease of control and absence of sticking which might otherwise occur as'the material is fed through the machine. However, depending upon the exact type and physical properties of the webs, this expedient may not be necessary, in which case, the stitches, rather than the pile projections, would be adjacent to the woven material.

It will thus be understood that I have provided an improved fabric and method for producing-same which has adequate strength and ability to withstand severe usage. The cost of manufacturing a carpet assembly with an integral resilient pad is thereby substantially References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,855,916 Keeney Apr. 26, 1932 2,480,984 Van Issum Sept. 6, 1949 2,649,748 McCutchen Aug. 25, 1953 2,713,012 Harstein July 12, 1955 2,725,835 Mather Dec. 6, 1955 2,810,950 Rice Oct. 29, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 469,966 Great Britain Aug. 6, 1937 

